SES turns bat hangout into learning opportunity

Sisters Elementary School (SES) is becoming a Halloween haunt, not only for kids in costume, but for a cauldron of bats.

The bats had called home the ponderosa pines that stood tall at McKenzie Highway and McKinney Butte Road, then the trees were cut down so the school building could go up.

"They lost their part of the forest, their habitat. There must have been some big holes way up in the trees where the bats were living. Every year, they come back after they hibernate. This time, they came back to find their trees, but what was there instead?" STEM teacher Jocelyn Blevins asked a handful of students last week.

"A school!" they replied.

"And the bats really love warmth, so they went up on the side of the school that is made of rocks that absorb a ton of heat. All those bats are soaking up the heat on the walls," Blevins said. "Now they're just hanging from the building."

Concern about bats recently spread with a community Facebook post. It pictured a bat discovered in a Sisters backyard. The post – like the bat – went viral.

"A family tested the bat and found it to have rabies," Blevins said. "I found out a lot of bats have rabies. They have diseases; they're carriers, but they don't go anywhere near people."

A small bat colony began spending sunny October days resting on the school's eastern exterior, "soaking up the warmth from the rocks but making some people uncomfortable," Blevins said.

"They were all over the walls and up in the eaves of the school, on the back side where the playground is, and then underneath the covered area and eaves by the first- and second-grade wings – 12 to 15 bats back there. The students noticed it and went to the teachers, who came to me: 'You're the STEM teacher. We have bats. So what do we do?'"

Speaking with science teacher Rima Givot, Blevins concluded that the bats "aren't really a nuisance, they just need a new place to live." She called the Forest Service, the Audubon Society, and local wildlife conservation center Think Wild, but none of them conduct bat rescues.

"They said, 'Your next option is to build bat boxes and help relocate them,'" she recalled.

Photo by Matt Van Slyke

Sisters Area Woodworkers (SAW) volunteer works with STEM teacher Jocelyn Blevins on bat boxes.

Blevins sought to turn the spooky situation into a learning opportunity. She consulted with Jason Chinchen, head of the high school woodshop, who suggested bringing in Sisters Area Woodworkers (SAW).

"We're all people that just like to be working with wood," said SAW volunteer Jim Naibert, one of several volunteers who used the school shop to build bat boxes. "We want to help the kids, we have quite a bit of knowledge of woodworking, it's a lot of fun, and it does something good."

SAW spent hours cutting plywood and kerfing notches for the inside of the bat boxes, which the bats use like ladders to climb in and cling on.

"A lot of this material has been donated. The plywood, for example, was donated by Hoyt's Hardware, a big contributor to this project that does a lot for the school," Naibert said.

Volunteer Christie Martin donated cedar for the sides, a few other SAW members brought in roof shingles and paint, and volunteer Mike Gurry donated paint brushes and rollers.

SAW did the cutting while third, fourth, and fifth graders helped assemble and paint the boxes.

"The cool part is first grade studies birds, and their big thing is bats. We're going to use them as part of the curriculum and do some bat monitoring as well," Blevins said.

The Forest Service will help the school decide where to place the finished bat boxes. Seeing so many people pitch in on the same project had Blevins beaming.

"It's amazing! The community here is incredible – the most generous community."